Sandra Chandler: Moroccan Impressions

Following her return from our Gnawa Photo Expedition in late June, whose principal objective was to photograph the legendary Gnawa musicians during the 12th Essaouira Music Festival, Sandra immersed herself in working on her Moroccan Impressions, a collection of photographs that are to be shown at Tufenkian on September 3, 2009.The venue's address is:Tufenkian Artisan Carpets515 NW 10th Avenue (in the Pearl District)Portland, Oregon503.222.3428 Ext: 105Sandra is a photographer and interior designer based in San Francisco. She tells us that color, smells and sounds drew her to world travel. Her city's Asian culture first enticed her to China in 1978 when the People’s Republic first opened. She then continued her exploration of Asia by traveling...

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Posted in: Events,Morocco,Photographers: Travel

8 Photographers : Access To Life

Photograph © Paolo Pellegrin-All Rights ReservedThe Global Fund is a unique global public-private partnership dedicated to attracting and disbursing additional resources to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.Here's a truly magnificent multimedia production for The Global Fund, and featuring work by Magnum Photos photographers such as Paolo Pellegrin, Alex Majoli, Larry Towell, Jim Goldberg, Gilles Peress, Jonas Bendiksen, Steve McCurry, and Eli Reed.In Access to Life, these 8 Magnum photographers traveled to 9 countries, photographing people before and 4 months after they began antiretroviral treatment for AIDS. This multimedia production must be one of the best I've seen, and ought to be studied by photographers wishing...

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Posted in: Multimedia,Photographers: Photojournalists,Photographers: Travel,Photojournalism

Foundry Photo Workshop-Manali

Well, after approximately 20 hours of driving from Delhi to Manali, we've reached our destination: the Foundry Photojournalism Workshp (Manali) which is to be held at the Green Cottages Hotel. The view above is from my room's balcony.Manali is at an altitude of 6,398 ft in the Vyas River valley, and is an important hill station in the mountains of Himachal Pradesh, providing an idyllic scenery and temperate climate even in the months of July and August. I can actually hear the roar of the Vyas river from my balcony from where I'm typing this post.As for the question as to why it took us 20 hours for a journey that normally should take about 12-13? Ah, well...perhaps the second photograph will explain it better than I can. Our bus had an unfortunate...

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Posted in: Events,Photojournalism

Dede Pickering: World Photographer

Photo © Dede Pickering-All Rights ReservedDede Pickering retired from the corporate world and became a world traveler and photographer...it's just that simple and that complex. She has traveled to Antarctica, Mongolia, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma, China, Cambodia, Peru, Patagonia, Kosovo, Albania, Rwanda, New Zealand, Guatemala, South East Asia and has made multiple trips to Africa and India, but her passion is the Himalayan Region.Dede is involved with CARE, a global private humanitarian organization, and started the Women’s Initiative, aimed at connecting American women professionals with women in the developing world. She is also a member of the Explorers Club in New York. Exploring her website with its remarkable photographs of different...

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Posted in: Asia,Photographers: Travel

Jashim Salam: Celestial Devotion

Photo © Jashim Salam-All Rights ReservedJashim Salam is a Bangladeshi photographer, who's currently working for Driknews international photo agency. He was recognized with a Jury Special Award in the 6th Humanity Photo Awards 2009 Contest, sponsored by the China Folklore Photographic Association, the Guangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee and UNESCO. He also received awards in the 69th International Photographic Salon of Japan (Asahi Shimbun) in 2008, a honorable mention in the USA Legatum Center Photo Contest in 2009, a special award in the People & Planet photo contest 2009 in Australia, and otjers.Jashim's atmospheric photo essay Celestial Devotion is featured by the website SocialDocumentary.net, and is about an an orphanage and...

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Posted in: Bangladesh,Photographers: Photojournalists

Frederic Lemalet: Tibet

Photo © Frederic Lemalet-All Rights ReservedFrederic Lemalet is a French travel photographer who, evidenced by his focus on Tibet, is in love with that region. He traveled to Alaska, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, China, and Nepal...but it's Tibet that seduced himBetween 2003 and 2009, Frederic spent 3 years in Tibet, documenting its culture which may soon disappear. Distributing his time between his native France and Tibet, he's currently working on publishing books, and displaying his images in exhibitions. The last exhibition was "Himalaya" and held in Montier-en-Der (north-eastern France).His Tibet gallery has 44 photographs, with a number of lovely portraits like the one I chose above...but don't miss those...

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Posted in: Photographers: Travel,Tibet

BBC's Human Planet

The BBC's Human Planet is a landmark series that marvels at mankind's incredible relationship with nature in the world today. Each episode takes you to the extremes of the planet: the arctic, mountains, oceans, jungles, grasslands, deserts, rivers and even the urban jungle.A word of caution...exploring the Human Planet website will take you a while. I've barely scratched its surface so far.Human Planet crews have filmed in around 80 locations, bringing us stories that have never been told on television before. The team has trekked with HD cameras and state of the art gear to film from the air, from the ground and underwater. For more on Human Planet offerings, check Human Planet Explorer CollectionsOne of the forces behind Human Planet...

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Posted in: Multimedia

Voice-Over Artist

Photographers who produce multimedia photo essays are notoriously voice-over calamities...flat, unfunny...you name it. I ought to know...I break into a cold sweat whenever I have to do a voice-over (which is rare).Audio will make or break a multimedia photo essay, so a lifeless or unattractive voice-over (when needed) will doom one's product. But here's a natural talent who ought to be employed as a voice-over artist by photographers, in radio or even on television. So here's a chance to do good and employ this man!Via Duckrabb...

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Posted in: Multimedia

Nagore Sessions: Sufi Song

A recent article appearing in The New York Times on music used in some of the city's yoga centers led me to the Nagore Sessions. These are Sufi chants accompanied by percussion from the Middle East and contemporary Western instruments. While the musicians are from many different nationalities, faiths and backgrounds and came together to produce the Nagore Sessions, the singers (Abdul Ghani, Ajah Maideen and Sabur Maideen Babha Sabeer) are Sufis from India. They usually perform at religious and social ceremonies at the Sufi shrine of Nagore Dargah in coastal Tamil Nadu.This song follows the qawwali style as it includes verses praising God, but I'm also told that it's sung in Tamil. Traditional Qawwali songs are mostly sung in Urdu and Punjabi, and a few in Persian. Finding this is timely, as...

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Posted in: India,Multimedia

Elizabeth Herman: Durga Puja

Photo © Elizabeth Herman-All Rights ReservedElizabeth Herman is a photographer and a recent graduate of Tufts University. She's currently residing in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where she is a Fulbright Fellow. At Tufts, Elizabeth intertwined her studies with her passion for photography through "Exposure", the Tufts’ student-led documentary studies group.Whilst in Dhaka, Elizabeth documented the annual Durga Puja. The annual event is an Hindu festival in South Asia that celebrates worship of the Hindu goddess Durga. As far as Bangladesh is concerned, Durga Puja is its largest religious festival for Bengali Hindus.As an aside, Durga Puja will be the objective of my Kolkata's Cult of Durga Photo-Expedition/Workshop in early October 2011.It's sold out...

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Posted in: Bangladesh,Photographers: Photojournalists

Sophie Gerrard: The Coal Cycle Wallahs

"I load the bike then push it for 50 kilometers. It takes me 2 days."Here's The Coal Cycle Wallahs story; the work of Sophie Gerrard, a British freelance documentary photographer in the UK and India who specializes in environmental and social issues.The Coal Cycle Wallahs documents the impoverished men who haul coal along Jharkhand's steep and twisting forest roads. As the Indian Government owns all the resources under the land, these coal-wallahs are technically stealing the coal from mines...but the authorities turn a blind eye.Jharkhand is a state in eastern India, carved out of the south Bihar in 2000. It shares its border with Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and West Bengal. It's home to the largest coal belt in Asia, but is been plagued by poverty, lawlessness, bad governance...

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Posted in: India,Multimedia,Photographers: Photojournalists

January? Must Be TTP's 4th Year!!!

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedAs I'll be traveling on January 24 when it's officially The Travel Photographer blog's fourth birthday, I thought why not observe it today...?I started this blog on January 24, 2007 with a post on the Ardh Kumbh Mela, which was being held in Allahabad in that year.  Since then, I've posted over 2116 posts, posted about no less than 900 photographers and ranted, pontificated, expressed considered and unconsidered opinions on issues, important and trivial....gleefully aroused the ire of a dogmatic few and provoked the generous compliments of many.I learned of new and interesting things about photography, world history, geopolitics, culture, religious and non religious traditions...I was influenced...

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Posted in: POV

Next Week On The Travel Photographer

What's on tap for the week starting Monday, January 3? Take a look:1. The work of a French photographer/photojournalist featuring  Tibet and Kilimanjaro.2. A photomovie by a Scottish photographer...on the Coal Wallahs of India.3. The work of an emerging photographer on the Durga Puja.4. An interview with an award-winning photojournalist, along with his tips and techniques. Plus potential "shooting from the hip" posts....who knows what the first week of 2011 may bring!As a footnote: a reader wrote me the other day complaining that the Next Week On The Travel Photographer posts were a waste...saying that he would much prefer if I was to post daily, including Sundays!!!Tough crowd my reade...

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